Relays are known as communication modules, which are arranged between master and slaves and which only relay the data exchanged between the master and the slave and serve e.g. for amplifying the physical signal.
Control systems comprising a master and one or a plurality of slaves are commonly used in many fields of technology. For example, such control systems may serve to control components of a mobile communication antenna. In this case, the master may execute the control of antennas and/or antenna line devices as slaves.
In many fields, the communication between master and slaves must, however, satisfy high demands on latencies. This is especially also the case with antenna systems. According to the prior art it was therefore necessary to position the master comparatively close to the slaves so as to observe the demanded latencies. Hence, it has been necessary up to now to arrange, e.g. in the case of mobile communication antenna systems, complicated master applications decentrally close to the antenna, e.g. in the area of the mobile communication base station. This makes it more difficult to centrally control a communication system, which comprises a plurality of antennas.
Therefore, it is the object of the present disclosure to provide a control system in the case of which the master need no longer be arranged close to the slaves.
The present disclosure comprises, according to a first aspect, a control system comprising a master, at least one slave, and a communication module which is arranged between the master and the at least one slave and through which the master and the at least one slave communicate, wherein the master sends control commands for controlling the at least one slave and said at least one slave responds to the control commands of the master, and wherein the communication module relays the respective control commands and responses. According to a first variant of the present disclosure, the master transmits to the communication module in one or a plurality of requests at least one control command and at least one associated timing requirement, which the communication module processes by relaying the at least one control command according to the at least one timing requirement to the at least one slave. According to a second variant of the first aspect, the communication module determines timing information concerning the communication with the at least one slave and sends said timing information to the master.
The first and second variants of the first aspect of the present disclosure can be used each individually and independently of one another. Optionally, however, they are used in combination.
Using timing requirements in accordance with the present disclosure, which are transmitted from the master to the communication module and which determine the time response of the latter, means that the only latencies which matter with respect to a correct execution of the communication between master and slaves in terms of time are the latencies between the communication module and the slaves, but no longer the latencies between the master and the communication module. Likewise, the transmission of timing information independently of possible latencies in the communication between the communication module and the master allows monitoring of the time response of the slaves. The master can thus be arranged remotely from the slaves and/or may be connected to the communication module via communication links with a non-defined or high latency.
In particular, the master may be connected to the communication module via a communication link with a higher and/or non-defined latency. As regards the time response of the system, it will in this case suffice when the communication module is connected to the at least one slave via a communication link with a lower and/or defined latency. The higher latency may be a first latency and the lower latency may be a second latency, where the first latency is higher than the second latency.
In addition, the master may communicate with the communication module via a network.
In the following, embodiments of a control system according to the first variant of the present disclosure will now be described.
According to a possible embodiment, a single request of the master may comprise at least one control command together with at least one associated timing requirement. For example, a request may here comprise two or more control commands together with an associated timing requirement. In particular, the request may comprise all the timing requirements associated with at least one control command and/or all the control commands associated with at least one timing requirement.
Alternatively, the at least one control command and the associated at least one timing requirement may be transmitted in separate requests from the master to the communication module. In addition, it is imaginable to transmit a plurality of control commands or a plurality of timing requirements in separate requests from the master to the communication module. The information transmitted in a request from the master according to a first embodiment is thus distributed to two or more requests.
Optionally, the master and the communication module each have a logic function allowing the master to signal and the communication module to recognize that the separate requests belong together. In particular, the requests may comprise link information and/or identification information, e.g. an ID, which signals to the communication module that control commands and/or timing requirements belonging to the separate requests are transmitted. Optionally, linked requests will not be further processed by the communication module until all the linked requests from the master have arrived.
According to one embodiment, the master sends in one or a plurality of requests at least two control commands and an associated timing requirement to the communication module, the communication module sending the two control commands successively according to the timing requirement to at least one slave. In particular, the communication module may send the two control commands successively to the at least one slave with a temporal distance corresponding to the timing requirement and/or in a temporal sequence corresponding to the timing requirement. In particular, a further request will thus no longer be necessary for sending the second control command, but the communication module will send the second control command automatically in accordance with the timing requirement. Thus, it is possible to send two control commands according to the timing requirement, independently of the latency between the master and the communication module.
Optionally, the communication module automatically guarantees that the timing requirement will be observed by transmitting the second control signal in good time (e.g., within a predetermined duration). The communication module can here evaluate the time for communication with the slave and transmit the control commands in accordance with the timing requirement.
According to a possible embodiment, the request or the plurality of requests comprises a first control command to a first slave, a second control command to a second slave, and the timing requirement, wherein, after having received the request or at least one and optionally all of the plurality of requests, the communication module sends the first control command to the first slave and the second control command to the second slave after a period of time corresponding to the timing requirement and/or in a temporal sequence corresponding to the timing requirement and/or on the basis of a condition corresponding to the timing requirement.
According to an alternative embodiment, the two control commands may, however, also serve to control a single slave.
In accordance with a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the timing requirement concerns the temporal distance between the sending of two control commands by the communication module and/or the temporal distance between the reception of a response from a slave and the sending of a control command by the communication module.
In addition to requests which comprise at least one control command and at least one timing requirement or which are linked for transmitting at least one control command and at least one timing requirement, the master may also send requests to the communication module, which comprise only one control command but no timing requirement and which are not linked, said requests causing the communication module to relay the control command directly to the at least one slave.
In the following, embodiments of a control system according to the second variant of the present disclosure will be shown.
According to one embodiment of the second variant, the communication module determines the difference in time between the sending of a control command to a slave and the reception of a response, and sends it to the master.
Alternatively or additionally, the communication module may determine the transmission time when a control command is sent to a slave and/or the reception time of a response, and send it or them to the master.
Optionally, the communication module sends the timing information and in particular the difference in time, the transmission time, and/or the reception time together with the response of the slave to the master.
Embodiments of the present disclosure, which may be used for a control system according to the first variant as well as for a control system according to the second variant, will be described in the following.
Communication between the master and all the slaves connected to the master may take place such that only the master will be able to initiate communication, whereas the slaves wait to be addressed by the master.
The communication between the master and the slaves connected to the master may be serial communication.
According to a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the communication module acknowledges the reception of one or of a plurality of requests and/or of a control command of the master by sending an acknowledge signal.
According to a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the communication module sends a plurality of responses of at least one slave in common to the master. In particular, the communication module may collect a plurality of responses of at least one slave and send them optionally together with at least one timing information. In this case, the timing information will optionally relate to at least one of the responses.
According to an alternative embodiment of the present disclosure, the communication module sends a plurality of responses of at least one slave each individually to the master. In particular, the communication module may relay responses of the at least one slave as soon as they arrive. Optionally, the communication module sends each of the responses together with at least one timing information.
The present disclosure comprises according to a second, independent aspect a control system comprising at least one master, at least one slave, and a communication module which is arranged between the master and the at least one slave and through which the master and the at least one slave communicate, wherein the master sends control commands for controlling the at least one slave and said at least one slave responds to the control commands of the master, and wherein the communication module relays the respective control commands and responses. According to the present disclosure, the communication module has a polling mode in which it sends, at predetermined time intervals automatically and without being requested to do so by a master's request, polling commands to the at least one slave. The amount of data exchanged between the master and the communication module can be reduced in this way.
Such polling commands may e.g. be used for signaling to the slaves that the communication link is still active. Optionally, the slaves respond to a polling command with a polling response.
According to a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, not each polling response of a slave to a polling command is relayed to the master. Also this is a possibility of reducing the data volume.
In particular, only the polling response of a slave to the first or the last polling command of the communication module may be relayed to the master. Alternatively, a polling response may also be relayed, if a time criterion with respect to the last relayed polling response is fulfilled. For example, a polling response may be relayed, if a certain number of preceding polling responses has not been relayed and/or if no polling responses have been relayed for a certain period of time.
However, a status and/or alarm message sent by the slave in response to a polling command will optionally always be relayed to the master.
The polling mode can optionally be switched on and off by the master and/or the at least one slave. For example, the master and/or the at least one slave may be able to switch the polling mode on and/or off by sending a request and/or a control command and/or a response.
The polling function of the communication module according to the second aspect of the present disclosure may also be implemented independently of the timing requirements and the time evaluation according to the first aspect. Optionally, both aspects are, however, realized in combination.
Embodiments of all the aspects of the present disclosure will be described in the following.
The master may be a controller, e.g. a virtual controller. The slaves are optionally terminals.
The control commands and the responses with which the master and the slaves communicate may first be arbitrary information packets and/or parameters.
Communication between the master and the slave or slaves takes place optionally via a communication protocol, which defines the form and/or the content of the control commands and of the responses. The control commands may comprise a header and a body, the header optionally comprising at least addressing information for the addressed slave. The body may comprise one or a plurality of data arrays, which, depending on the respective control command, may have very different contents.
Optionally, the communication module identically relays, with respect to their information structure and their information content, the control commands comprised in a request. The communication module can thus have a very simple design, since it need not evaluate and/or understand the control commands, but it simply relays these commands. Furthermore, the communication protocol used for communication between master and slaves can be changed without any necessity of adapting the communication module.
For example, a request defines a frame in which the control command or control commands are comprised, which must therefore only be removed from the frame and relayed. Such a frame for a request, with which the master communicates with the communication module, may have a header and a body. The header optionally comprises at least addressing information for the addressed communication module, whereas the body comprises a plurality of data arrays comprising one or a plurality of control commands for relaying to the slave or slaves, and optionally one or a plurality of timing requirements.
A request may, however, also be distributed over a plurality of frames. For example, the respective control commands and timing requirements may be transmitted in separate frames. In this case, it is, however, necessary that assignment information between the control commands and the timing requirements is transmitted.
Optionally, also the responses of the slaves are only inserted in a larger response frame in the communication module and relayed to the master. Such a frame for a response, with which the communication module answers the master, may comprise a header and a body. The header optionally comprises at least addressing information for the master, whereas the body comprises a plurality of data arrays comprising one or a plurality of responses of the slave or slaves and optionally one or a plurality of items of timing information. Also in this case, a plurality of frames may, however, be used for a response.
The communication module may optionally transmit the control commands and/or the responses comprised in a request via some other physical layer and/or some other protocol.
Optionally, the communication module is transparent for the connected slaves, e.g. communication takes place for the slaves in exactly the same way as if they communicated directly with the master. The communication module can thus be used without any necessity of modifying the slaves, and it can replace e.g. a master installed on site.
According to the present disclosure, the communication protocol used for communication between the master and the communication module may differ from that used for communication between master and slave(s). The communication between master and slave may, however, also take place on the basis of a master-slave relationship, in which the communication module is the slave.
According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, communication between the communication module and the master takes place via an Internet protocol.
Control systems according to the present disclosure are adapted for use in many fields.
For example, one or a plurality of the following communication protocols and techniques are imaginable as a communication protocol for communication between the master and the communication module and/or for communication between master and slaves: Real Time Protocol (RTP), Serial Port Extender via LAN/WAN (IP), IPv4, IPv6, UART, standard communication protocols (http(s), REST, MQTT, etc.), NAT, etc.
Optionally, the control system according to the present disclosure is used for controlling communication systems.
According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the slave is therefore a control component of a communication system.
In particular, the slave may be an antenna line device and/or a control component of a mobile communication antenna, in particular a mobile communication antenna for operation at a mobile communication base station.
For example, the slave may be an antenna control unit as an antenna line device, especially an antenna control unit for controlling the orientation of the antenna, in particular for adjusting the tilt angle of a group antenna.
Furthermore, the slave may also be a further antenna line device, e.g. an amplifier.
A plurality of slaves may here communicate via a communication module with a master, in particular a plurality of control components of the antennas of a mobile communication base station.
According to a possible embodiment, the communication module is integrated in the base station.
Furthermore, the communication module may communicate via the high-frequency signal lines with the control component, in particular via data signals which are superimposed on the high-frequency signals.
According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, communication between master and slave may take place according to the AISG standard, and/or the control commands and/or the responses may correspond to the AISG standard. The AISG standard is here in particular the AISG standard 1.0 or higher. The term AISG comprises, within the framework of the present disclosure, each protocol which originated from the first AISG standard. Hence, the term AISG especially comprises AISG1.0, AISG1.1, AISG2.0 and 3GPP TS 25.466.
According to an alternative embodiment of the present disclosure, the slave is, however, a control component of a satellite receiver and/or a satellite antenna.
According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the control system according to the present disclosure is used for controlling a communication system comprising a plurality of slaves that are arranged remotely from one another, the control of the communication system being executed centrally in that one or a plurality of centrally arranged masters communicate with the slaves via respective communication modules arranged in the area of the slaves. As described above, the communication system may here be in particular a mobile communication system.
The present disclosure additionally comprises a communication module, which is adapted to be arranged between a master and at least one slave and which relays control commands of the master to the slave and responses of the slave to the master. The communication module is characterized in that, according to a first variant of the first aspect, it processes one or a plurality of requests of the master, with which the master transmits at least one control command and at least one timing requirement, by sending the at least one control command according to the at least one timing requirement to the at least one slave, and in that, according to a second variant of the first aspect, it determines timing information with respect to communication with the at least one slave, and sends said timing information to the master. Optionally, the two variants are again combined with one another. According to the second aspect, the communication module has a polling mode in which it sends, at predetermined time intervals automatically and without being requested to do so by a master's request, polling commands to the at least one slave. Optionally, the two aspects are realized in combination.
Optionally, the communication module is configured in the manner and operates in the manner that has already been described hereinbefore in connection with the control system according to the present disclosure, and/or it is used for configuring such a control system.
The present disclosure additionally comprises a method of controlling at least one slave via a master, the master and the at least one slave having arranged between them a communication module through which the master and the at least one slave communicate, wherein the master sends control commands for controlling the at least one slave and the at least one slave responds to the master's control commands, wherein the communication module relays the respective control commands and the responses. According to a first variant of the first aspect, the master transmits to the communication module in one or a plurality of requests at least one control command and an associated timing requirement, wherein the communication module processes the request or the plurality of requests by sending the at least one control command according to the at least one timing requirement to the at least one slave. According to a second variant of the first aspect, the communication module determines timing information with respect to communication with the at least one slave, and sends said timing information to the master. Optionally, the two variants are again combined with one another. According to the second aspect, the communication module sends, in a polling mode, polling commands to the at least one slave at predetermined time intervals automatically and without being requested to do so by a master's request. Optionally, the two aspects are realized in combination.
Optionally, the method is executed in the manner that has already been described hereinbefore in connection with the control system according to the present disclosure, and/or it is used for operating such a control system.
The present disclosure will now be described in more detail making reference to embodiments and drawings.